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Communication  f 
Conf  Pam  #434 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  November  29,  18G4.— 
Referred  to  special  Coaitnittee  on  Impressments,  and  ordered  to  be 
printed. 

[By  the  Chair.] 


MESS  AG  K  OF  THK  PRESIDENT, 

Richmond,  Va.,  Nov.  28,  1864. 

To  the  House  of  Representatives  : 

In  response  to  your  resolution  of  the  19th  instant,  I  herewith  trans- 
mit a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  war,  relative  to  the  recent 
impressment  of  slaves,  by  his  order,  in  the  Sciite  of  Virginia. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


COMMUNICATION  FROM  SECRETARY  OF  WAR. 

War  Department,  C.   S.   A.,  ) 

Richmond,  Nov.  28,  1864.      \ 

To  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  : 

Sir  :  Tho  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  requesting 
the  President  t)  inform  the  House  by  what  authority  of  law  the  War 
Department  is  now  conducting  an  impresiraen;  of  slaves  in  Virginia, 
without  regard  to  the  State  law  on  th:it  subject,  which  has  baen  re- 
ferred by  you  to  this  Department,  has  been  received. 

On  the  1 7th  of  September  last,  General  Lee,  commanding  the  army 
of  Northern  Virginia,  made  known  to  this  Dapvrtraent  *'  that  there  was 
an  immediate  necessity  for  the  services  of  five  thousand  negroes  for 
thirty  days.  That  the  necessit}'  was  sufficiently  urgent  to  justify 
calling  for  this  labor  at  once  ;  that  he  could  not,  consistently  with  the 
exigencies  of  the  service,  detail  officers  and  soldiers  from  the  army  for 
this  duty  ;"  and  said,  *'  that  if  the  agents  of  the  bureau  of  conscrip- 
tion can  be  employed  for  this  purpose,  I  am  prepared  to  give  them 
such  authority  as  I  consistently  may.  They  can  consult  with  the 
local  authorities,  and  ai range  for  the  execution  of  the  impressment 
in  such  manner,  as  to  be  least  injurious  to  the  public  service.  I  en- 
close a  tabular  statement  of  the  quota  and  from  the  counties  from  which 
it  is  proposed  to  draw  the  negroes. 

The  existence  of  an  urgent  necessity  for  an  immediate  supply  of 


the  labor  required  was  unquestionable.  In  conformity  to  the  request 
of  the  conjinan-llng  General,  the  agency  of  the  officeri'  of  conscription 
was  directed  for  the  impressment  according  to  the  schedule  furnished 
by  him,  ^vith  orders  to  confine  the  impressment  to  slaves  between 
eighteen  and  fifty  years  of  age,  and  that  not  more  than  one  slave  out  of 
every  five  on  any  farm  should  bo  taken,  and  where  there  were  only 
three  slaves  of  ages  required,  tho3e  should  be  exempt. 

The  question,  whether  a  commanding  general,  in  the  absence  of 
any  law  upon  the  subject,  under  the  pressure  of  an  immediate  and  ur^ 
gent  necessity,  be  authorized  to  impress  slaves  for  service  with  his 
army,  has  been  much  debated  in  this  country,  and  a  diversity  of 
opidion  has  been  expressed  upon  it.  In  a  discussion  in  the  Congress 
of  the  il-zdh  United  .States  of  a  claim  for  compensation  for  the  loss  of 
a  slave  so  impressed  for  the  defence  of  a  city  in  a  state  of  siege,  Judge 
P.  P.  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  said:  •'  The  fJave  is  an  item  of  property, 
is  not  a  member  of  the  body  politic  ;  he  owes  no  service  on  his  own  ac- 
count to  the  Government.  The  Government  knows  him  only  as  the 
property  of  iiis  master,  and  it  cannot  get  at  him  only  in  two  ways; 
the  one  is  by  the  ordin:>ry  process  of  taxation,  and  the  other  is  by  the 
extraordinary  exertion  of  poiver,  under  a  pressing  public  emergency. 
*  *  *  *  If  the  officer  wantonly  or  unnecessarily  invade  the 
property  of  a  ciiizon,  he  is  a  tresspasser.  But  then  this  must  be 
shown,  and,  in  the  present  case,  not  so  much  as  a  doubt  has  been  sug- 
gested of  the  existence  of  such  a  case  of  necessity.  If  the  necessity 
exists,  then  that  case  has  arisen  in  which  the  Governioent  m-dj  take 
private  property  for  the  public  use." 

The  power  ot  a  general  in  the  field  to  impre.ss  private  property  for 
the  public  use,  in  a  case  of  an  immediate  necessity,  has,  since  the  dis- 
cussion referred  to,  been  judicially  determined  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  to  be  legitimate. 

The  fifth  section  of  the  impressment  act  of  the  IGth  of  February 
last,  amendatory  of  the  laws  regulating  impressments,  seems  to  recog- 
nise this  power  us  belonging  to  the  commanding  General,  for  it  pro- 
hibits the  impressment  of  a  very  large  class  of  slaves,  "  except  in  case 
of  urgent  necessity,  and  upon  the  order  of  the  General  commanding, 
the  department"  in  which  the  class  referred  to  may  be  employed.  It 
was  to  this  class  of  slaves  that  General  Leo  had  reference  in  his 
letter,  when  he  speaks  of  communicating  the  authority  that  resides 
in  him.  This  Di'pariment,  in  ordering  the  impressments  under  the 
circumstances  before  mentioned,  in  coni^ormiiy  to  the  request  of  the 
commanding  General,  and  according  to  his  plan,  had  some  reference 
to  the  powers  that  belonged  to  him,  under  the  conditions  that  have 
been  disclused. 

It  also  made  reference  to  the  powers  with  which  it  was  clothed  by 
the  acts   of  Congress. 

The  fourth  sec  ion  of  the  act  of  Congress  of  the  26th  of  March, 
I8G0,  authorized  the  Secretary  of  War  to  take  private  property  for 
the  public  use,  ^vhenever  he  shall  deem  it  to  be  necessary,  by  reason 
of  the  impracticability  of  procuring  the  same  by  contract,  so  as  to 
accumulate  supplies  for  the  army,  or  for  the  good  of  the  service,  in 


any  locality,  by  general  order,  through  the  instrumentality  of  suhor- 
dinate  officers.  The  ninth  section  of  the  same  act  directed  that  -when 
slaves  are  impressed  by  the  Confederate  Government  to  hibor  on  for- 
tiScations,  or  other  public  works,  the  impressment  should  be  made 
according  to  the  rules  and  regulations  provided  in  the  laws  of  the 
States  where  they  are  impressed  ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  such  law,  in 
accordance  with  such  rules  and  regulations  as  the  Secretary  of  War 
shall,  from  time  to  time,  prescribe,  not  inconsistent  with  the  terms  of 
the  act. 

This  act  of  Congress  docs  not  require  the  Department  to  employ 
the  agency  of  State  officers  to  secure  the  labor  of  slaves.  The  power  to 
make  the  impressment  in  the  fourth  section  of  the  act  above  quoted, 
gives  to  the  Secretary  of  War  the  power  to  impress  any  property  liable 
to  impi'essaent  through  the  agency  of  the  officers  of  the  Confederate 
States,  and  in  the  ninth  section  of  the  act,  the  terms  used  are,  "  that 
when  slaves  are  impressed  by  the  Confederate  Government,"  "  the  im- 
pressment shall  be  made  by  said  Government'*  in  accordance  with  such 
rules  and  regulations  as  have  been  provided  in  the  laws  of  the  State 
wherein  the;^  are  impressed,  if  there  he  such  laws.  In  an  net  passed  by 
the  State  of  Virginia,  od  October,  1862,  the  Governor  of  the  State  was 
authorized  and  required  to  call  into  the  Confederate  States  service 
slaves  lor  labor  on  fortiScaiions  and  public  works.  The  act  provided 
for  the  equalizing  of  the  burden,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  among  the  sev- 
eral counties,  cities  and  tov.rjB  of  the  Commonwcdlth  ;  for  the  hire  to 
be  paid  ;  the  obligations  to  be  incurred  by  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment ;  and  for  the  manner  of  the  collection  and  delivery  of  the  slaves. 
This  act  is  not  an  act  for  the  impressment  of  slaves,  but  a  mode  for 
drafting  them  for  the  public  service.  The  execution  cf  the  act  was 
dependent,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  the  action  of  the  county  court, 
and  experience  has  fully  shown  that  its  operation  is  dilatory,  and  that 
it  is  not  suitable  for  an  immediate  and  urgent  necessity  such  as  existed 
in  this  case. 

The  only  provision  in  this  act  that  authorises  the  impressment  of 
slaves  is  conditional  upon  the  event  of  the  neglect  or  refusal  of  the 
county  or  corporation  court  to  perform  the  duty  imposed  upon  them. 
In  that  event  the  Governor  is  authorized,  with  the  aid  of  certain 
specified  oiticeis  of  the  county  to  make  an  impressment  of  the  slaves 
demanded  from  the  county  by  agents  of  his  selection. 

The  Department  has  Ufsually  coll'Cted  slaves  for  work  upon  fortifi- 
cations by  a  requisition  upon  the  Governor,  according  to  the  terms  of 
this  act.  It  is  equitable  in  its  provisions,  and  the  agencies  employed 
are  probably  the  least  obnoxious  of  any  other  for  the  accompli?hraent 
of  the  object  proposed,  that  object  being  the  assertion  of  an  onerous 
»nd  repulsive  claim  for  service.  But  the  existing  circumstances  did 
not  admit  of  the  delay  necessarily  involved  in  the  usj  of  its  ma- 
chinery. The  Department  has  not  supposed  thit  this  act  was  incor- 
porated into  the  legisl  ition  of  the  Confederate  States,  by  the  ninth 
section  cf  the  act  of  March,  18d3  ;  but  it  has,  in  its  general  order 
under  that  section  of  the  act,  and  its  special  order  in  the  present  in- 
stance, preserved  its  leading  features  in  reference  to  the  apportion- 


ment  of  the  labor,  the  compensation  to  be  made,  the  obligations  to  be 
assumed  to  the  owner  in  case  of  the  loss  or  injury  of  the  property^ 
and  the  length  of  time  for  which  the  slaves  are  to  be  continued  in  the 
service. 

Having  thus  shown  the  authority  of  law  under  which  the  Depart- 
ment is  now  conducting  the  impressment  of  slaves  in  Virginia,  th« 
answer  to  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is 

Respectfully  submitted, 

JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

Secretary  of  War, 


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